Antibacterial Properties of Cymbopogon martinii Essential Oil against Bacillus subtillis Food Industry Pathogen

Abstract

Essential oils have great potential in the field of the food industry as they can effectively prevent the presence of several bacterial and fungal pathogens. Essential oils are complex volatile compounds, synthesized naturally in different plant parts during the process of the secondary metabolism. The main goal of this work is to perform a qualitative evaluation of the antibacterial properties of 24 chemotyped essential oils against the growth of Bacillus subtillis. These Gram-positive bacteria are responsible for “rope” disease in bread preservation processes. The study was carried out using the method of disk-diffusion in agar. Biological activity was observed in five essential oils: Cymbopogon martinii var. motia, Thymus vulgaris QT Linanol, Thymus satureioides, Mentha piperita and Eugenia caryophyllus. The first three have in common the presence of some mono terpenic derivatives—Geraniol, Linalool and Carvacrol, respectively—with strong antimicrobial effects. The Cymbopogon martinii essential oil is one of the botanicals with the highest geraniol content (up to 80.53%) and showed more activity antimicrobial than the others. A contributing role of this knowledge could be the design of Cymbopogon martinii essential oil formula, which can be used in bakery industry as a preservative, such as nano-encapsulation for bakery doughs, active packaging of baked products or surface disinfectants.

Antibacterial activity of palmarosa oil significantly varies between Aeromonas veronii and Aeromonas caviae and exhibits selective action on tetracycline and sulfonamide resistant A. caviae

“…The PMO of Indian origin is known to possess 80% geraniol and 9% geranyl acetate as the main constituents/major components (Lacroix, 2007). High geraniol content in the PMO oil is known for antimicrobial activity as evident from previous studies (Mayaud et al, 2008; Santamarta et al, 2020). However, the exact percentage of geraniol content of PMO used in our study needs investigation.…”

“…The PMO of Indian origin is known to possess 80% geraniol and 9% geranyl acetate as the main constituents/major components (Lacroix, 2007). High geraniol content in the 13.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.0 ± 0.00 b ≤6.0 ± 0.00 b 13.33 ± 0.58 a 10.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 c 12.00 ± 0.00 a 10.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 c 11.00 ± 0.00 a 10.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 c 16.00 ± 0.00 a 12.33 ± 0.58 b 8.67 ± 2.31 c 10.67 ± 0.58 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 12.33 ± 0.58 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 11.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 10.67 ± 0.58 a 10.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 12.00 ± 0.00 a 10.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 c 10.00 ± 0.0 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b Mean ± SD 12.00 ± 0.09 a 8.39 ± 0.05 b 6.24 ± 0.21 c Sulfonamide resistant strains (n = 9) 11.33 ± 0.58 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 14.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 10.67 ± 1.15 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 12.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 15.67 ± 0.58 a 7.33 ± 2.31 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 12.33 ± 0.58 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 11.00 ± 0.00 a 10.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.0 ± 0.00 c 10.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 12.33 ± 0.58 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b Mean ± SD 12.15 ± 0.28 a 6.59 ± 0.26 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 c Susceptible strains (n = 10) 12.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 10.67 ± 0.58 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 10.33 ± 0.58 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 7.33 ± 2.31 ab 15.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 13.00 ± 0.00 a 10.67 ± 0.58 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 c 12.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 7.33 ± 2.31 b 10.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 10.00 ± 0.00 a 7.33 ± 2.31 ab ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 10.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b 10.00 ± 0.00 a ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b ≤6.00 ± 0.00 b Mean ± SD 11.3 ± 0.00 a 6.60 ± 0.17 PMO oil is known for antimicrobial activity as evident from previous studies (Mayaud et al, 2008;Santamarta et al, 2020). However, the exact percentage of geraniol content of PMO used in our study needs investigation.…”

“…An earlier study by Gallani et al (2020) observed that in comparison to basil oil, palmarosa oil has higher inhibitory efficacy (lower MIC/MBC) on Aeromonas hydrophila isolated from diseased fish. Several other reports also indicate that palmarosa oil is effective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria (Santamarta et al, 2020;Morris, 2021). The PMO of Indian origin is known to possess 80% geraniol and 9% geranyl acetate as the main constituents/major components (Lacroix, 2007).…”

Design of Nanostructured Lipid Carriers Containing Cymbopogon martinii (Palmarosa) Essential Oil against Aspergillus nomius

“…The major constituents (see Table 1 ) were geraniol (80.37%), geraniol ester (10.9%), and linalool (3.0%) ( Figure S1 in Supplementary Materials shows the chromatogram of PEO by GC/MS). Some studies with PEO also reported geraniol as the major compound [ 17 , 18 ]. On the other hand, in other studies, the amount was lower than the one obtained in this work.…”

“…Palmarosa ( Cymbopogon martinii ) is a perennial and aromatic plant, whose leaves and flowers produce an essential oil (EO) considered safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [ 14 , 15 ]. Palmarosa essential oil (PEO) is recognized for its antifungal, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties [ 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Although very versatile, EOs contain labile and volatile compounds that evaporate or decompose easily under high temperatures, low pressure, and the presence of air and light, which shortens its useful life [ 19 ].…”